Iowa Republicans Sponsor Bill to Jail Women Who Have Abortions for ‘Murder’ of Zygotes

A group of eight Iowa Republican legislators has introduced a bill that defines all abortion as “murder,” sending women and doctors to jail even in cases of rape or incest, and even if the abortion involves nothing more than a single-celled zygote.

Really! That’s what they actually said.

Iowa Republican Rep. Tom Shaw

State Rep. Tom Shaw says that he authored House File 138 to protect human life, whether “you’re a zygote, an infant, a teenager or an adult.”

The bill defines a “person” as “an individual human being, without regard to age of development, from the moment of conception, when a zygote is formed, until natural death.”

“Murder includes killing another person through any means that terminates the life of the other person including but not limited to the use of abortion-inducing drugs,” the measure states without making any exceptions for rape or incest.

Republican state Rep. Rob Bacon, who is co-sponsoring the bill, told the Ames Tribune that he wanted to “protect the life of the unborn” because “[t]here’s still some of us that believe life begins at conception.”

During a Wednesday interview with Denver Bible Church pastor Bob Enyart, Shaw explained that defining a fertilized egg as a “person” in Iowa’s murder statute “just simplifies everything.”

Bacon concedes the bill has no chance of becoming law. The bill was sent to the judiciary committee, of which Wessel-Kroeschell is a member. She said it could make it out of that committee but would never become law.

“It will never be brought up in the Senate, we know that,” Bacon said.

Despite that, Bacon felt it was important to send a message that some Republicans remain committed to ending legal abortions.

Bacon knows there are those that will question backing a lightning rod bill, especially one doomed from the outset. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, while speaking at the Republican National Committee meeting two weeks ago, said the GOP has to “stop being the stupid party.” He referenced candidates that “damaged” the party with “bizarre and offensive comments” like Senate candidates Todd Akin in Missouri and Richard Mourdock in Indiana who advocated for banning abortion in the case of rape or incest.

Republicans lost badly nationally in November’s election, and lost ground in the Iowa House.

“I know where Bobby’s at with this. I’ve felt long and hard after the last election that we need to change our message,” Bacon said. “Within our party, we’re going to differ on social issues. One of them is the right to life. There are some who say that we need to ease up on this because it’s not winning us anything. My thought is we can’t let this drop. Even if I’m in here screaming to empty walls, I will always be a voice for the unborn.”

State Rep. Tom Shaw says that he authored House File 138 to protect human life, whether “you’re a zygote, an infant, a teenager or an adult.”

Gun control could help “protect human life.” You know what else? More safety inspections for our food. That would help “protect human life.” How about workplace protections, like say, mine safety? That would definitely help “protect human life.”

It is precisely because of assholes like this I left the Republican party and will not vote for any Republican or conservative at any level in any location. I wouldn’t elect a GOPer to be a dog catcher at this point.

So how do they propose dealing with the fertilized eggs that fail to implant? Are we all just going to have to submit for testing to make sure that there was no accidental murder each month? What about birth control? The main goal of course is to prevent ovulation, but if it fails? Miscarriage? Should I just head down to the courthouse now for sentencing because I have no idea if I’ve ever possibly had a zygote that didn’t make it?

So how do they propose dealing with the fertilized eggs that fail to implant? Are we all just going to have to submit for testing to make sure that there was no accidental murder each month? What about birth control? The main goal of course is to prevent ovulation, but if it fails? Miscarriage? Should I just head down to the courthouse now for sentencing because I have no idea if I’ve ever possibly had a zygote that didn’t make it?

Nuance: it’s hard.

All wombs will be placed in protective custody until the crisis has passed.

So how do they propose dealing with the fertilized eggs that fail to implant? Are we all just going to have to submit for testing to make sure that there was no accidental murder each month? What about birth control? The main goal of course is to prevent ovulation, but if it fails? Miscarriage? Should I just head down to the courthouse now for sentencing because I have no idea if I’ve ever possibly had a zygote that didn’t make it?

Nuance: it’s hard.

A consequence of this law is that any miscarriage must be reported and investigated. Another is that medical staff who fail to report miscarriages become subject to investigation for accessory or conspiracy to murder.

So how do they propose dealing with the fertilized eggs that fail to implant? Are we all just going to have to submit for testing to make sure that there was no accidental murder each month? What about birth control? The main goal of course is to prevent ovulation, but if it fails? Miscarriage? Should I just head down to the courthouse now for sentencing because I have no idea if I’ve ever possibly had a zygote that didn’t make it?

Nuance: it’s hard.

Intrauterine monitored CCTV will be required, obviously. And that will create jawbs.

It is precisely because of assholes like this I left the Republican party and will not vote for any Republican or conservative at any level in any location. I wouldn’t elect a GOPer to be a dog catcher at this point.

Quoted for truth and dinged. Don’t want to vote democratic, fine, but don’t support them because of some misguided brand loyalty.

It is precisely because of assholes like this I left the Republican party and will not vote for any Republican or conservative at any level in any location. I wouldn’t elect a GOPer to be a dog catcher at this point.

I can’t say that I’ve ever voted for a Republican (mostly because by the time I was old enough to vote the social conservatives had taken over), but I’d be willing to look and have a serious conversation and think about it if we could straighten out a few things: namely, my body = my rules. The gender of the person someone else wants to marry is none of my business. And please keep myths and history where they belong: in the history classes, not the science classes.

A complete and utter lack of knowledge or understanding about the reproductive system and basic science. Why should any of this surprise us when the rest of the GOP platform is anti science (as where you’ve got GOP candidates and elected officials from Jindal on down) pushing creationism and ID over actual science in science classrooms. If they couldn’t care about actual science, why would they care that the details of their proposals would have bad outcomes for women in their state when they’ve shown such a poor understanding of the basic science?

At this point, I’ll vote for whoever has the best chance of beating the GOP.

In 2012 I voted for a Democrat for my congressional district for the first time ever, and he won. I did it holding my nose though because I had issues with the man… that said he’s not supporting shit like this so I forced myself to overlook other things.

In 2010 I left it blank and only voted on the ballot props and local offices.

It’s individuals like these two who give ideological cover for groups like the Army of God and people like convicted murderer Scott Roeder - both of whom are actively recruiting more people to their cause.

So every time I go to the taco shop down the street and order 5 rolled tacos and a large diet coke and the total comes out to $6.66, I’m selling my soul to Satan? How many times can I sell it? I ask because I’ve done it dozens of times since the combination of price and taxes on that totaled $6.66.

So every time I go to the taco shop down the street and order 5 rolled tacos and a large diet coke and the total comes out to $6.66, I’m selling my soul to Satan? How many times can I sell it? I ask because I’ve done it dozens of times since the combination of price and taxes on that combination totaled $6.66.

So every time I go to the taco shop down the street and order 5 rolled tacos and a large diet coke and the total comes out to $6.66, I’m selling my soul to Satan? How many times can I sell it? I ask because I’ve done it dozens of times since the combination of price and taxes on that totaled $6.66.

With the dramatic gains made in the solar industry during the past decade allowing for significantly more efficient panels, I find it incredible that there isn’t a major push to get hundreds of thousands of locations (homes, businesses, etc) on the grid. Having power companies buy back excess energy at market prices - especially in areas like the southern US - would reduce major stress on energy supplies they experience during peak months.

With the dramatic gains made in the solar industry during the past decade allowing for significantly more efficient panels, I find it incredible that there isn’t a major push to get hundreds of thousands of locations (homes, businesses, etc) on the grid.

It really is stories like this that exampify why I don’t like organized religion. If you want to believe in God, great, but man I do not like organized religion one bit and this story is just another iceberg tip.

Welcome to my hell. Iowa has gone from having a world renowned public education system and being known as the “State of Minds” to this asshattery.
It all began when some of our homegrown politicians realized there was big money to be made as a grifter for Christ.

Nothing like 20 kids and 6 teachers being slaughtered to provide a platform to reinforce your prejudices.

“Muslims participated in praying for those slain?? Well fuck that, we’ll take our prayers somewhere else!”

It must be sad to live in their hateful world. They hate their way out of bed in the morning, and spend the rest of their day hating the world before hating themselves to sleep.

I know, that’s what I was thinking. You’d think that a tragedy like this and 9/11 where another pastor from the same faith was suspended for participating in an interfaith service would be able bringing people together but no the Lutheran Synods seem to think that being bigoted douchebags is the way to go. Good riddance. I believe this is the church Michelle Bachmann belongs to if I’m not mistaken.

It really is stories like this that exampify why I don’t like organized religion. If you want to believe in God, great, but man I do not like organized religion one bit and this story is just another iceberg tip.

It’s nothing more than a scam. A grift. Read your holy book and believe what you want. But if you belong to a church with leadership like that, then you’re not there for the Lord. Just like watching Fox News. You’re there because it helps reinforce your own prejudices.

You really think they’d make a stink like this if there wasn’t anything to do with Muslims? Eh, difference of opinion on this one, but I’d bet my car that’s what caused this.

Probably but remember fundamentalist Christian groups are intolerant towards Catholics, mainline Protestant sects, and Judaism too but I am willing to bet that the Muslim participation is probably what got the biggest fuss.

I’ve been musing some panels. It’d be more attractive if it weren’t for the snow and all of the tall trees.

If I lived in a house instead of renting, solar panels likely would be one of the first improvements I would make. Return of investment for new installations is around 3 years in this part of the country now.

If I lived in a house instead of renting, solar panels likely would be one of the first improvements I would make. Return of investment for new installations is around 3 years in this part of the country now.

If we weren’t likely to move within the next 2 years I think it would be very high on our list. Instead we’re focusing on bringing some of the wiring up to code instead.

So every time I go to the taco shop down the street and order 5 rolled tacos and a large diet coke and the total comes out to $6.66, I’m selling my soul to Satan? How many times can I sell it? I ask because I’ve done it dozens of times since the combination of price and taxes on that totaled $6.66.

The first time damned you for eternity, so you might as well keep on enjoying them as long as you can.//

The idea that getting into heaven or hell may ride on the correctness of one’s theological beliefs about details of the divinity may be the single stupidest idea to have had widespread acceptance in world history.

Presbyterian Church: “Presbyterians are identical to Methodists except that one of them says ‘debt’s instead of ‘trespasses’ in the Lord’s prayer. Hundreds of years of bitter armed conflict has failed to resolve this difference. How many more lives must be lost?”

Presbyterian Church: “Presbyterians are identical to Methodists except that one of them says ‘debt’s instead of ‘trespasses’ in the Lord’s prayer. Hundreds of years of bitter armed conflict has failed to resolve this difference. How many more lives must be lost?”

—-Stephen Colbert.

Ha don’t get me started over the Catholic versus Protestant argument about the “body” of Christ.

The non-profit Guidance in Giving lists the Los Angeles-area Catholic Church among its “diocesan accounts” and says it is exploring a campaign to raise $200 million for the diocese to meet “a variety of needs,” including “priests’ retirement, seminarian education, Catholic schools, Catholic Charities and parish needs.”these lawsuits from buggering little boys don’t pay for themselves!

The pastor did this under orders from on high: (quote from linked article)

Earlier this month, the president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Pastor Matthew Harrison, wrote a letter to church members saying he had requested an apology from Morris for his participation in ‘joint worship with other religions’.

Emphasis added. Missouri synod make a big difference here. I went to that article expecting to find that information.

The pastor did this under orders from on high: (quote from linked article)

Emphasis added. Missouri synod make a big difference here. I went to that article expecting to find that information.

I put up a link in a comment to the Wikipedia page on the Missouri Synod. Historical group resistant to inclusive policies. Essentially migrated to the US from Germany to maintain that in the 19th century.

Missouri Synod if I recall right is more fundamentalist. Mainline Lutherans are more closer to the Catholics and Episcopalians. In fact, I believe they had a close debate about whether to allow gay ministers or not.

It is precisely because of assholes like this I left the Republican party and will not vote for any Republican or conservative at any level in any location. I wouldn’t elect a GOPer to be a dog catcher at this point.

If you did elect a Republican as dog catcher, his first order of business would be to try and legislate a way his dog catching authority can be used to ban abortions or deny gays their rights…..

One sides believes they’re cannibal vampires and the other doesn’t last time I checked.

Yeah the Catholics believe it actually is the body of Christ and the Prots don’t. When I was going through CCD, I always thought that was weird- the whole actual body and blood of Christ thing. The guilt thing though stays with you even if you can count on your hand how many masses you’ve attended within the past five years.

I put up a link in a comment to the Wikipedia page on the Missouri Synod. Historical group resistant to inclusive policies. Essentially migrated to the US from Germany to maintain that in the 19th century.

Then there’s the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod for those who got tired of how relentlessly liberal LCMS is. No that is not snark. Nasty people, everyone of them that I have met.

Then there’s the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod for those who got tired of how relentlessly liberal LCMS is. No that is not snark. Nasty people, everyone of them that I have met.

Kind of reminds me of those who are convinced that the RCC is too liberal in its current incarnation and want to return to pre-Vatican II nonsense when the church was very outwardly hostile to other faiths and religions.

Like I said before, he’s all over the political landscape on there. His biggest beef is with his fellow cops and their families. The cops out there have a huge problem trying to find him with all his military and police training.

We got to see Angry McCain again today (as if that’s anything new) when first Panetta and then Dempsey declared that the military did everything it possibly could do to send assistance, but nothing was less than hours away.

We got to see Angry McCain again today (as if that’s anything new) when first Panetta and then Dempsey declared that the military did everything it possibly could do to send assistance, but nothing was less than hours away.

You mean the military doesn’t have a teleportation system? Or were they just not willing to admit it in open testimony?

Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family appeared with John Rabe and Carmen Pate on Truth that Transforms, the flagship radio program of Truth in Action Ministries, to argue that same-sex marriage is an oppressive and satanic ploy. After Rabe asked him why opponents of same-sex marriage sometimes have problems explaining “why redefining [marriage] is deadly,” Stanton claimed that the marriage debate “goes deep into not just our own faith but humanity itself.”

He argued that resistance to same-sex marriage is necessary because “throughout the world if you look at how cultures do marriage, every single culture throughout time has done marriage as a union between men and women, God has given it to us this way.” “Every human culture needs marriage and we redefine it at our own peril,” Stanton said.

Later, Stanton repeated his assertion that homosexuality “is a really pernicious lie of Satan” because it denies “the distinct God imaging in each of us as males and females.” He went on to warn that gay equality leads to the “persecution” of Christians and will “redefine not only marriage but the family itself if not humanity completely.”

Legalizing gay marriage will cast down the barriers, allowing the ice trolls of Jotunheim full access to our world and bring about a new Ice Age!
/

Senate Republicans appear to believe that the U.S. military has the ability to respond to any crisis, at any time, anywhere in the world, as evidenced by frequent questioning during a Senate hearing today why U.S. assets weren’t deployed to stop the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic missions in Benghazi Libya — despite repeated confirmation from top defense officials that there were none to be deployed in a timely manner.

Wow. there’s something in this ‘sell your soul to Stan’ shit. Woke up to a wife mourning her washing machine in defunctus. Then it got weird. The agitator came apart on the first pull, the stripped parts were obvious, there was an instructional video on YT, the local dealer had the parts for $3.50, I grabbed the right socket wrench on the first try, and I had a generic o-ring to replace a questionable one. Total time 20 min.

Wow. there’s something in this ‘sell your soul to Stan’ shit. Woke up to a wife mourning her washing machine in defunctus. Then it got weird. The agitator came apart on the first pull, the stripped parts were obvious, there was an instructional video on YT, the local dealer had the parts for $3.50, I grabbed the right socket wrench on the first try, and I had a generic o-ring to replace a questionable one. Total time 20 min.

Awhile back, I posted about my terrible experiences with a large local car dealership that advertises heavily on TV.

Here’s the Cliff notes version:

- Wife and I went to dealership with a few specific makes of car in mind and gave the salesperson our financial info and told him specifically what our maximum was as far as monthly payment goes. Over the course of the week we get a complete lack of transparency with regards to finance matters, a salesperson who is trying to shovel us into all kinds of cars we don’t want (including a gas guzzling SUV, which made me REALLY angry) and when we finally do find a vehicle we like they make us an offer at nearly DOUBLE the monthly payment we said we could afford.

They told us they only found one company willing to provide us financing and the huge payment was our only option. Frustrated we walked out and ended up purchasing from another dealership that was the polar opposite of the first one in terms of customer service.

As if my opinion of this dealership wasn’t already low enough, I’ve been getting mailings from the financial companies (as is customary when a credit inquiry is made) and apparently there were not one but TWO other companies willing to finance us. So for some reason the dealer lied to our face about that.

I will never buy a car from this dealership and have already told everyone I know to stay far away.

Recent headlines about Fox News have given liberals gleeful Schadenfreude: Dick “Landslide” Morris, gone. Ratings the lowest in since 2001. Roger Ailes practicing the kind of pre-emptive paranoia (buying up the domains for bizarre iterations of a biographer’s name) that inevitably accompanies Nixonian delusions of infallibility and hubristic defeat.

To be sure, the departure of Sarah Palin generated a certain degree of wistful nostalgia: she was a bouffanted, bedazzled punching bag as much as she was a folksy aphorism-mangler, as well as a black hole for dropped “g’s” and common sense.

Some observers have taken these events as proof of the ongoing GOP implosion and signals of their devolution from opposition party to regional grandstanders and designated spoilers. This theme has been echoing ever since the channel’s election night coverage unfolded as an action movie-level collision between reality and Karl Rove’s ample and admittedly daunting forehead.

But such prognostications suffer from buying into the logic that has until now been a part of the formula that made Fox such an overwhelming success: Fox = Republican party. The network’s rating grew an astounding 570% from 1999 to 2009.

The marriage between the network and the party has been almost entirely beneficial to both entities. Working together – brazenly, even explicitly so – has been a force multiplier for the GOP brand and message. It’s not really a surprise that as the linked swimmers have started to go against the current of history, their connection puts them both at risk of drowning.

I guess the photographers here will appreciate this most. You know how you get to depend on a local store that has been in the neighborhood for years? A favorite little restaurant or shop? Well the camera shop that basically got me started as a pro and helped so much with those early magazine assignments for photography is closing. Place was a pro shop for cinema people from way back.

The cool part is they are digging up all the old gear. Circa 1920’s, 30’s, 40’s cinema equipment. 35mm projectors, Proscop film editing devices, really old lenses and even carbon arc rods for the old old lights. Cameras from the teens!

I am so gonna document the place as it shuts down. Certainly going to do a major shoot and editorial as they close. Camera Craft North Hollywood you will be missed! Nancy we will always remember you, your Dad and his great place. The very address Lana Turner was actually discovered!

I guess the photographers here will appreciate this most. You know how you get to depend on a local store that has been in the neighborhood for years? A favorite little restaurant or shop? Well the camera shop that basically got me started as a pro and helped so much with those early magazine assignments for photography is closing. Place was a pro shop for cinema people from way back.

The cool part is they are digging up all the old gear. Circa 1920’s, 30’s, 40’s cinema equipment. 35mm projectors, Proscop film editing devices, really old lenses and even carbon arc rods for the old old lights. Cameras from the teens!

I am so gonna document the place as it shuts down. Certainly going to do a major shoot and editorial as they close. Camera Craft North Hollywood you will be missed! Nancy we will always remember you, your Dad and his great place. The very address Lana Turner was actually discovered!

Very cool. The shrinkage of silver has helped keep me away from photography. Been looking at DSLRs and even finderless systems that will take my old Canon lenses, would really like a hi-MP back for the 4x5. That would require increasing the life insurance on Wife.